"I do believe that the left wants to cause great damage to the NFL," he told Sean Hannity. "What does the NFL stand for? Masculinity. Strength. Toughness."

"So what are they doing to it?" he asked. "You go to college campuses now and you find classes on how to take masculinity out of men. It's actually happening — there are studies and courses in college to do this."

"It's patriotic," he explained, "you've got the flag, you've got the anthem, you got military uniformed personnel. All the things that the left wants to erase from this country. They don't like displays of patriotism, strength, rugged individualism. And that's why the players are being used here."

"They think it's about police brutality," he continued, "they think it's about righting social wrongs and so forth. This is an attack on the NFL as an institution or shaking it down, lowering its profile and impact on American culture."

"I don’t think they understand what’s happening to them. I don’t think they understand what’s going on," Limbaugh added later in the interview. "They think they’re relating to the majority of their fan base, they’re not! They’re driving them away.

"And I hate it," Limbaugh said. "I don’t want the NFL to get smaller. I don’t want it to become insignificant. I don’t want it to be taken over by a bunch of wusses. I don’t want it to be taken over by left-wing social justice causes."